My Job - Ian A'Court

Ian A'Court

Ian A'Court - Local Dartmouth Viticulturist

My Job - Ian A'Court

Where are you from?

I was born in Bristol in 1940…as my mother said ‘the night they bombed the docks’! My father was stationed on Salisbury Plain and before he was sent off to North Africa he found us a nice safe cottage in Hinton, Wiltshire. My mother was from the East end of London and she hated the countryside so she decided she was moving us back to London and that is what she did.

We were only bombed out a couple of times! We survived the war and after my father was demobbed the family moved first to Peterborough and then, when I was twelve, to Staines in Middlesex. I was a grammar school boy but, truly, I was not very academic and chose to leave after doing my ‘O’ levels.

What career did you want?

My interests revolved around the countryside and at every opportunity I would get on my bike and cycle along the Thames and to the gravel pits. I loved bird watching and fishing and I suppose it was these interests that led me to choose agricultural college. As I was a town boy, to do this I had to complete a three year apprenticeship to gain practical skills.

So on leaving school, I first went to work on a very large dairy farm in Surrey owned by the Guinness family. I spent nine months there…long, long hours and very early mornings! Then I moved on to a pig and poultry unit just outside Guildford for almost 2 years and then completed the three years on a small family dairy farm on the Surrey/Sussex border.

Whilst gaining my practical experience, I also had to do ‘A’ levels in the evening at Guildford Tech to be accepted at agricultural college. Some friends and I also ran a weekly jazz club in Godalming so I managed to survive on little or no sleep! On finishing college I decided I did not want to farm in the UK as there were so few opportunities here with any responsibility for the younger man.

A group of us decided therefore we would go to Australia and my friends decided to drive there. As I couldn’t afford the cost and time of going overland, I went by ship, bound for New Zealand. I stopped off in South Africa where I worked and explored a little but I did eventually reach Australia from where I worked my way across the country to end up in Sydney. Moving then to New Zealand, I managed to miss the whole of the ‘Swinging 60s’. in New Zealand, it was living a life fifty years behind ours!

I joined the agents of a big international agricultural science company during the very early days of using modern agricultural chemicals for plant protection and crop improvement. We would get the chemical compounds from America and then look for a way of using them.

So I was involved in technical and field support work, everything from keeping the railway lines free of weeds to crop spraying. Some of the South Pacific islands were also part of my area which meant I was involved with pineapple and rice crops as well. All very cutting edge, lots going on and very exciting.

It was at this point in my life, I developed my interest in viticulture, i.e. growing vines. At that time, the New Zealand wine industry was about the size of ours now, if not a little smaller. I found myself writing plant protection spray programmes for the emerging grape growers. This was pioneering work, which would stand me in good stead in later years.

I returned to England in 1970 where, because of my hands on knowledge of materials which had yet to be released in the UK, and in particular my experience trialing what became the world’s first systemic fungicide, I was back in employment at PBI within four days providing technical support for distributors and growers in the soft fruit industry. I worked for seven years with PBI in the South East before starting a new life with my then wife in Dartmouth.

What did you do when you moved to Dartmouth?

Had a part to play in producing my wonderful daughter Rebecca! I ran several retail shops in Dartmouth and was a member of Dartmouth Enterprise Group as the Chamber of Trade was known then. I also did a bit of building work but it was not in my character to just sit waiting for customers to walk in.

In the eighties, when interest rates were so high, it made our retail business unsustainable. We moved into the parish of Dittisham to run a small farm and holiday let business but after I established two vineyards in Devon I was asked to become the Vineyard Manager at Sharpham Vineyards.

Over 15 years we developed it into one of the UK’s most consistently high yielding and finest quality sites, winning awards along the way. In 2005, I handed over the day to day running of the vineyard to give me more time to establish my own consultancy, A’Court Viticulture www.acourtviticulture.co.uk, advising prospective, new and established vineyards all over the UK.

I have spent the last two to three years mainly doing site survey work for people who have land and who think they want to go into the industry. There has been a massive expansion, particularly in sparkling wines, in the South East and, closer to home, I have recently been the Project Manager for a new vineyard just outside Galmpton. Four hectares which involved planting 15,000 vines!

How do you spend your spare time?

I enjoy the social life in Dittisham where I now live and involve myself on several village committees - the village hall and regatta for example. Of course I enjoy getting out onto the river and I am also a member of the Ditsum Players and we have just taken part in the Dart Drama Festival where I played the part of ‘The Jew’ in the Wolf Mankowitz play The Hebrew Lesson.